Samsung has officially launched the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 as from 9 August 2018. There has been a lot of rumor and speculation about the pecs and how this latest Samsung flagship may look like and with what capabilities. Samsung has tried it’s best to bring out what might be the best for its customers. It might not be surprising though that the Galaxy Note 9 is the biggest Samsung phone this year, taking into consideration its size, storage, and the price tag.

The Note 9 comes with spectacular features that are irresistible but has its High and Lows. Samsung has done a great job in trying to improve from Galaxy Note 8, But as you know, there will be never a perfect phone.

In the past three days I have had the privilege of using the Note 9, and at first, I could hardly differentiate it from Galaxy Note 8, except for its size. But a closer look will give the eye a ton of new features. Some features are not that important to an ordinary user though.

Galaxy Note 9 new features;

The Stylus Pen– there has been many changes and improvements on how the S pen can be used. With the Stylus Pen, you can remotely control your phone. It now has Bluetooth connectivity, meaning you can remotely take selfies, skip music tracks on your phone and can be used as a presentation clicker. By default, pressing and holding the S Pen button, will automatically open the camera. However, you can customize it to open any application you want on your phone. Great isn’t it? :=). You can control your phone using new S pen magic tricks from 30 feet away. All these capabilities of the S pen make it a talking point of the Note 9.

2. A 4000 mAH battery, seemed to be one of the greatly improved features from Note 8’s 3300 mAH, However, it might be still too early to give a concrete conclusion on battery review at this stage, because, my analysis has produced very marginal differences on the power consumption. From what I have discovered, you can spend the whole day, that is around 11hrs of normal phone usage. This now differs on how you are using the phone and with what Applications. But overall, there are notable positive changes, which is a plus, considering Samsung has been trailing on this area.

3. Al camera the Galaxy Note 9 can detect more than 20 scenes from plants, food and many more in order to give the best photo/shot. This is the first time Samsung has used the word “AI” on its Samsung products. Note 9 has a dual 12P sensors that have a variable of (F/2.4 and F/1.5). The same in S9 Phone. Also, has 2* zooming capability enhanced by the optical lens.

4. Water -Yes, water ). The Galaxy Note 9 has water in it, water carbon fiber cooling system. Since from the Galaxy Note 7 battery mistakes, Samsung is trying its best in curbing battery overheating, so this water cooling system is enhanced to produce better performance without triggering high battery temperature.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 phone review, the lows.

As I said earlier, it will be very difficult to have, in this world of technology, what we call a perfect mobile phone. Technology has set such a high benchmark for mobile phones manufacturers, that is impossible to meet. In this way, Note 9 is not an exception. Below I will walk you through some of the cons I managed to come up with during my review.

1. Very High Price

The phone comes with a staggering $999,9 price for the 128GB internal storage and 6GB memory model. As for the 512GB and 8GB memory model, the price is from $1250. That is too much for a mere phone, is it? The price is a bit high than an average phone. Actually, this equals the price of iPhone X. This is absolutely insane.

2. The OS is not latest-Despite being the latest Samsung Flagship and even launched after Google launched the Android Pie 9.0 version, the Galaxy Note 9 will be shelved with 8.1 version. Upgrading to 9.0 is not much of an issue but to Android Apps developers it could be an issue in developing Android Apps and in Account fragmentation.

3. The battery is non-removable

4. The vast surface of Galaxy note 9 is glass, users will have to be extra cautious as it may easily break. Approximately 82% of Note 9 surface is glass. The front and back of the Galaxy Note 9 come with a Gorilla glass protection, that gave me an immediate answer that both sides have the equal vulnerability of breaking. That will mean you will have to part with at least $100 in case you break it.

5. The responsiveness of the screen is not according to what I had expected. It’s a bit slower to fingertips taps

6. The models differ with Region-You can find that there is a US model of Galaxy Note 9 and a non-US model. That means if you have a US-supported Galaxy Note 9, you could face some difficulties in the network if you traveled outside the US. This is due to the copyright clash with chipset manufacturing company, Qualcomm. So, the US, Northern America and The Peoples’ Republic Of China have the Snapdragon 845 chipset and other regions will have Samsung’s Exynos 9810 processor. This is inconvenient for users because if you have a wrong model in the certain region, that will mean you can not receive updates and you could encounter network problems. There must be a solution to this.

If you a Gamer like me, Note 9 has the best answer for you; The water carbon cooling system prevents the phone from overheating when playing games, the performances when playing games is quite impressive.

The storage is irresistible, the 6GB/128GB Model has memory and internal storage respectively and this Galaxy note 9 version costs $1000. The 8GB RAM and 512GB internal memory version cost $1250 in the US and the memory is expandable. Samsung is also working on an SD card of 512GB, that will mean you could walk away with more than 1Terrabyte in your pocket.

Charging system

The phone come furnished with a 4000mAh battery, Samsung has struggled to give its customers relief in the past, especially after the Note 7 battery incident. The Note 7 should have been the first phone of the Note series to bring a big battery with better performance, unfortunately, because of some major mistakes, Samsung was forced to discontinue it.

Note 9 however, has tried to correct that issue. I could notice that using my phone normally, I could, with easy, spend the whole day with the power, browsing the internet, chatting on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp and so on. The phone also supports wireless charging which you can buy separately though

Galaxy Note 9 has an inbuilt DeX software, this functionality allows it to operate fairly as a desktop computer, you can also use a Bluetooth connected keyboard and Note 9 has an impressive performance to run Microsoft office suite and YouTube at once. Absolutely Great.

Galaxy Note 9 is water and dust resistant, so the only worrying thing here is cracking, keep tight your phone and you are good to go, no stress. With much of the surface of the phone being glass, you have to be extra cautious.

Security

This seems to be one of Samsung’s priority, Note 9 come packed with essential security like software screen lock (eg PIN, Password, and screen pattern lock) also included with the security package, like in any other Samsung mobile phone, there are face recognition and fingerprint scanner. However, as long as you have a mobile phone, it might always be a wise decision to take that extra step by installing some security software and ensure that your phone has the necessary security settings to secure your own privacy

So is it advisable to buy Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Probably YES. Though there are some grey areas, overall, the new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is undoubtedly one of the best Android phones to bet in 2018. The storage, Al camera, the magic Stylus Pen, display and the 4000 mAh battery, are but hard to ignore. Remember, it might be hard or nearly impossible for you to get a perfect phone but Note 9 is nearest to some of the best at this moment

Pre Order Galaxy Note 9 starting on 10 August-and you could get a gift.

Note 9 will be officially available in stores starting from the 24th of August 2018 but you can pre-order before 24 August, you can get an awesome gift and can choose from;

He likes to play with the latest phones, gaming consoles, PCs, laptops and when he gets some spare time he likes to do VFX stuff. You can always find him playing with tools like Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, etc. His current gear is Galaxy Note 9+

33 Replies to “Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Phone Review-What you must know before you buy”

Hi
i found it very informative your review about the new Samsung note 9.
what i love about it it’s the new system of battery that can get cooler whenever it gets too hot.
i remember i was not allowed to board a cruise ship with a Samsung note 7 just because the battery could get into fire when it get hot.

i found this last model very expensive but at the same time i can say it’s very fragile the way it’s designed but it’s worth the price because of the new high technology.

Thanks so much for the info. i should have had a review like that before i bought my Samsung not 7.

Hi i found it very informative your review about the new Samsung note 9.what i love about it it’s the new system of battery that can get cooler whenever it gets too hot.i remember i was not allowed to board a cruise ship with a Samsung note 7 just because the battery could get into fire when it get hot.

i found this last model very expensive but at the same time i can say it’s very fragile the way it’s designed but it’s worth the price because of the new high technology.

Thanks so much for the info. i should have had a review like that before i bought my Samsung not 7.

Great Post! I really like the Note 9 and would probably buy this phone over others in a similar price range. The amount of ram is crazy! I am sure that one of the old computers at home has 4 gigs of ram. Its pretty cool that it has water inside it. That is the exact opposite of what phones usually require, but that probably has to do with getting the circuitry wet.

I think that this is a great phone. The price tag is a bit high but if you consider the amount of tech compressed into that tiny frame, it is no wonder. The most amazing thing to me is the advancement in storage space. I don’t even have 1 TB on my best laptop (yet)!

Technology like this is exciting and scary at the same time. Its only a matter of time before one of these tech companies crack unlimited storage of some kind.

Hi. Thank you for the information about the Sangsung 9 note phone. It has helped me make up my mind about it.

The stylus pen with remote capabilities seems a nice novelty although I’m still trying to get my head around why you would want a new phone and then not use it but use something to control I remotely instead?

It would be nice to have a phone that has battery that lasts longer but I too will wait and see if this turns out to be true with this phone .

Do you think they will every make a phone with a battery that lasts a lifetime?

When my current contract runs out I will be looking into buoy the new Samsung 9 product as it looks stylish.

Brilliant post! I never had a sumsung before, I’m in need of a new phone and a lot of my friends told me to try Samsung Galaxy Note 9 even though it’s expensive I think it’s worth it because of it’s high quality.

I really needed this post I wanted to know everything about this phone before buying it! please keep the good work and please keep sharing these reviews because they are so helpful 😀

Great Review.However, it will be very expensive in our world(Developing countries)Just a question I want to ask.Which Flagship( S1, S2. S3, etc.) is good for us in developing world and which is cheaper? There are other Samsung which is made from other countries but not from the original Samsung company.

Great review man! I wanted to buy this phone and I did not make a mistake. It is shipping right now and now I am waiting. What I must agree is that price is a little high but it is less important than phone quality. I was buying phones which are in $200-$500 range but quality nothing. I especially like that this Samsung Galaxy have a style pen, it is very interesting.

I like your review about Note 9. Even though the price is high, I agree that it’s about the quality. With many features attached, It’s great to see that more functions of the S pen. In my opinion, it is worth to have this handheld. Thank you for posting this review.

Great review! I’m in need of a new phone very soon and your review has edged me more towards using a different brand. I currently use Sony and still want to keep using the android OS. This seems ideal.

I love the fact that the stylus pen can do so much especially with remotely taking selfies. And it has water in it? Now that’s smart tech.

The price tag, however, does really put me off though but that seems the only reason why. Maybe I’ll wait a little longer before deciding. Thanks for this review.

This website is exactly what I have been looking for! Before I commit a thousand bucks on a phone, I want to know everything about it. The water cooled battery and the 82% glass are the main things that are keeping me at bay. What do you personally think about the water cooled battery? I am afraid if it ever gets dropped, even with a protective case, the water and the glass will be disastrous!

Lastly is the price. Wow… a thousand bucks. I think once I wrap me head around those three issues, I might be a believer. Your recommendation goes a long way. Thank you for sharing this review. Hmmm….. Clay

my mum is a Samgsung and she is eager to buy the note 9, I will pass this information on to her so she is clued up before buying. I love the pen! Makes it easier for people who aren’t so great at typing on a touch screen. Which colour do you prefer? I quite the blue or the gold.

Hi and thanks for the very detailed review of the note 9. I can say that I’m very torn between keeping to my iPhone or getting a galaxy note 9. After reading your review I’m looking at all your points carefully. I hope you can give some more reviews of this type in the future. Also is there any other smartphones that you might recommend with a lower price tag? Thanks Kenny

You are correct, the phone is very expensive. But that’s where we are heading, most popular new release are now costing more than $800. In the past it was very rare to see a phone of that price but nowadays its becoming normal with each and every release.

But it could also be cost effective to find yourself a cheaper but decent phone in the range of $250-$500, you can still an excellent phone

Great review! Thank you for sharing both the pros and cons of this phone. The S pen features look amazing. I never had a Samsung phone, and now I will definitely consider it since storage is important for me.
How long does it take to fully charge the phone?

Charging time is about 1 hr 50mins to 2hrs using the 15W charger that accompanies the phone, very similar charging time to Note8 and Galaxy S9+. The Note 9 doesn’t seem to drop it’s charging speed when used while charging, this may be a result of drawing more wattage, at 14,5W as compared 13,5W for Galaxy S9+ and Note 8. The battery shows a notable migration from its fast draining predecessors, to a more powerful battery.

Wow, that’s a serious phone with a pretty serious pricetag. I must be way behind with my Tracphone android. Either way I like the water cooling deal on this. Technology is pretty mind blowing I have to admit. Well written and informative

Am glad you found value in the article. The Galaxy Note 9 has some of the best features you can wish every Android phone have. Also, it has IP68 Certification, a certification given only to mobile phones which are dust and water resistant.

Thanks for clarifying that the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has all these features my friend. Other reviews have shown me just a few but now I know what it REALLY offers and I’m definitely thinking about getting one for myself. I’m a huge fan of the stylus pen and the price. Thanks for the help!

I really wish I had saw this review before I bought the S8 recently.
I stayed clear as I didn’t want to pay that high of a price.
But now that I have seen this review, I am wishing I had paid more and bought the Note 9.
I love taking pictures and the fact I can use bluetooth to take a selfie or open other applications is awesome.
The storage is also amazing as well as the battery life.
I am glad they are finally doing something about the battery getting hot.
The cordless charging is also a plus. Especially with the S7 I had, it would not charge through the port and the phone was only a year old.
Thank you for this helpful information.
I know what my net phone will be.

Glad you found value in the article. The Note 9 is offering great value though the price is very high. But in the near future will be not of a surprise because just come to think of it, Galaxy note 9 is costing $1000 and $1250, so how much will Samsung’s next model cost? Probably not less than $1250.
Just a few years ago so many people were not prepared to buy a $500 smartphone, but that has totally changed because people are nowadays don’t care much about money but QUALITY.